BigglesB

I’m reading “ultra-capitalists” here as “those that control an extreme proportion of capital” rather than “those who believe really strongly in capitalism as a system”, though tbf that venn diagram may well be a donut…

I have ADHD & use a very similar kind of daily notes template. I think the reason that it works for me at least is that it shortcuts some of the "not knowing where to start" executive function issues at the start of the day. I only need to remember one thing: open a new daily notes template. The checklist itself chains other good habits off the back of that, reminding me to e.g. make sure I've taken my meds, make coffee, put music on, think about what I've done recently & if there's anything to pick up again or dive back into & what I'm going to do for the day etc.

Yes, it can feel like a chore at times (especially forcing myself to do more in-depth periodic reflections) but without a system like this, I quickly find myself completely rudderless & my mental health & productivity both collapse pretty quickly.

You'll actually hear quite frequently that people diagnosed relatively late in life went under the radar for so long exactly because we developed our own massively over compensating systems like this & can appear (externally at least) to almost have the exact opposite of "executive function issues"!

Aka Elvanse in the UK

I suspect it will be politically difficult to outright ban the ad model... might the same effect be achieved however by enforcing strict online advertising requirements & making websites (specifically the owner of the domain name used to access the site?) liable for all ads that they host as well as liable for all data gathering activities that drive those ads? Ideally with a requirement that all ads shown must contain a link to information about all parties involved in producing the ad & any profiling used to determine whether or not to show it to the user viewing it.

So if any ad is shown based on user profiling from data gathered illegally (i.e. without a proper opt-in as per GDPR etc) then the site showing the ad could potentially be sued?

Essentially, make it so onerous to legally advertise without risking a large class action lawsuit that the practice more or less dies out without technically being "banned" per se...

I also wonder the extent to which "pseudo-black-box-AI" is potentially driving some of these crazy valuations now due to it actually being used in a lot algorithmic trading itself... seems like a prevalence of over-corrected models, all expecting "line go up" from recent historical data would be the perfect way to cook up a really "big beautiful bubble" so to speak...

My super talented friend Ian is currently (and for the rest of this week) live streaming himself painting a triptych of portraits of Elon Musk. He's currently just getting started on the first painting but will also be chatting to various people along the way inc Rosie O'Donnell who I believe will be joining in the next hour or so.

It's all in aid of "Free Our Feeds", a campaign to "keep social media open, people-powered, and billionaire-proof", which they've so far raised over $100k for out of their $500k target

Anyone who might dismiss this as being just a few isolated cases — or who think it is desirable to just remove political opponents from the equation — should think long and hard about what it will actually take to maintain this kind of “criminalisation of dissent” over the long term… escalation is inevitable.

There is clearly an intentional narrative being pushed that defines anyone who disagrees with the current administration’s ideology as an enemy who should be punished. Even if the risk to any one person is currently relatively small, just the threat itself will have profound effects on individual’s decisions.

A massive brain drain seems inevitable but such a war on free speech will also radicalise people, even if it starts only in whispers. That will likely necessitate further oppressive measures to “stamp it out” and so forth, creating a vicious cycle. With each iteration the stakes increase, justifying increasingly violent measures & countermeasures on both sides, further increasing the consequences of — and the need avoid — actually being held accountable for those actions…

I suppose so. There have always been stories of those kinds of things, but from the outside looking in, this definitely _feels_ different. Perhaps it's the privilege of my pigment but in the past I've had little issue the handful of times I've travelled across the pond & felt like if anything did escalate it'd eventually make its way to someone reasonable. Now...? Well I guess it just feels like "reasonableness" isn't exactly being projected as a valued characteristic at any level in the current chain of authority.

I hear you.

Feels like not that long ago that this would have been considered a fringe paranoid perspective. I used to being an early adopter & getting my real name as a username before anyone else. Plus there was an ego thing back in the day of wanting to be a famous artist etc :-)

But I originally felt pride in showing up online authentically as myself rather than hiding behind anonymity. But I also realise that's a naive approach that only made sense in a more civilised time, perhaps, if even then... online discourse has become so toxic over the last decade that I've definitely self-censored & engaged less & less in the fear that anything I say could well come back to bite me.

Not really. I did set up a blog at biggles.games a while back but haven’t been actively updating it for quite a while & there’s nothing about our current project on there yet… probably time to do an update tbh!!

Was actually planning to be at GDC this week & while there were other factors at play, the clincher was a feeling that there’s now a non-zero risk of getting caught up in some serious nightmare scenario like this. Seemed pretty self evident that the new administration’s rhetoric even a couple of months ago was paving the way to fascist authoritarianism & I don’t see that changing any time soon.

Tbh, even having a post like this in my user history is apparently the sort of thing that could cause complications at the border! So much for “free speech absolutism”. Makes me wonder how many others will stay silent to minimise that risk & whether that’ll lead to an illusion of support for these policies…

This looks fantastic! Love the premise & well done for what looks like an incredible solo effort. I was tech lead on Ozymandias & have another minified 4X in the works at the mo & putting out feelers with publishers etc. Sounds like you plan to self publish this one but I’d love to chat & see if there’s any way I can help with your launch, whether just through advice or via introductions etc. You can reach me at biggles (at) bravobravo.games though I may end up finding a way to contact you directly first :-)

Not quite… in the most common version of chessboxing it’s more a case of alternating between the chess & the boxing via, say, a 3 minute timer from the start of each “round”. You do need to be very careful moving the chess board in/out of the ring between rounds so as not to upset any of the pieces but otherwise play just continues round by round until checkmate or knockout (or TKO or a clock falls etc.)

Source: I fought in (and won!) a one-off chessboxing exhibition match in London back in 2012